As the internet continues to grow in popularity and pervasiveness so do the products and services that use it. The large number of internet users spread throughout the world and the wide variety of hardware components and software used therein presents numerous opportunities for the media stream to become impaired. Such impairments may include a low signal level, a high noise level, or a low mean opinion score. The impairments may, for example, be caused by packet loss between the two endpoints, excessive traffic at any of the components between the two endpoints, endpoints out of sync with each other, or incompatible hardware or software between the two endpoints or other components. The possibility of media degradation has caused some users to be hesitant about switching from traditional products or services to products or services that use internet protocol (IP).
To help ensure the quality of the products and services enabled by the internet, some products and services include diagnostic capabilities that may report the quality of the service. These diagnostic services typically measure the quality of, for example, a call at the receiving end. Thus, it is possible to know the end-to-end quality of the call being received by the user.